


Truth Stretched Thin

by Mossy_Moondark



Category: The Expanse (TV), The Expanse Series - James S. A. Corey
Genre: M/M, Rape Aftermath, Rape/Non-con Elements, Sex Pollen, emotions and shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2017-07-14
Packaged: 2018-12-01 17:50:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11491536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mossy_Moondark/pseuds/Mossy_Moondark
Summary: “The truth may be stretched thin, but it never breaks, and it always surfaces above lies, as oil floats on water." Don Quixote. Miguel de Cervantes.





	Truth Stretched Thin

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Billythesock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Billythesock/gifts).



_"Rocinante out."_

"Gonna be a long three days," Alex said, locking down the comm. He stood and stretched, yawned. Ridiculous to feel tired after such an uneventful departure, but that was life these days, mostly boredom, with frequent side trips into terror. Take this little venture, for example. He would quite happily have stayed on the _Roci_ , worked a little more on that project - made the project a little more secretive, actually. It wasn't that he was opposed to everyone knowing about it so much as he liked being able to present things in a more finished form. Where no one could, say, deny its usefulness, or suggest his time would be spend better elsewhere. 

"You coming or what?" said Amos, looking around the edge of the door.

"Yeah, yeah," Alex replied, making a point of shuffling a little faster. Sidestep Industries wasn't really his cup of tea. Just another upstart corporation backed by wealthy Earthers, or wealthy Martians, or what have you. Why Holden thought it was an important enough station to stop at was beyond him, but then, half the things Holden said and did were still a mystery. On the other hand, they were all still alive and in one piece, despite the universe's best attempts to the contrary, so clearly Holden was doing something right.

Still, though. "What are we here for, again?"

Amos zipped up his worksuit, sending Alex an irritated glance at the same time. "Y'know, he wants us to check out the viability of the replicating soil Sidestep says its created. Wants to make sure it's not a hoax."

"Hoax?"Alex clutched his chest in mock horror. "Trying to trick Belters into buying a dud? Say it ain't so!'

Amos did his usual shoulder-jerk of a silent laugh, and then they headed to the airlock.

Sidestep Station was a tiny ball of labs and habs, with docking for three and spikes of arrays in every direction. They weren't even trying to pretend they weren't there, although the coordinates were fairly off the regular lanes. Given all that, it was still a surprise to find an hardshell umbilical on the other side of the airlock. Alex had assumed the umbilical would be soft, because that was cheapest, and easiest to replace. All right then. Now he knew Sidestep meant business.

The umbilical held fresher air than normal - maybe that replicating soil really did exist - and when they got to the other end, the airlock cycled open to reveal a man and a woman in matching grey and white uniforms, smiling back at them. Alex immediately felt ill at ease.

"Welcome aboard Sidestep Industries," said the woman, holding out one hand. "I'm Dr. Shannon, and this is Administrator O'Connor. Would you like to freshen up, or shall we go directly to the lab?"

"Amos Burton, this is Alex Kamal," Amos said, jerking his head towards Alex. "If you don't mind, we're on limited time."

"Of course, of course," said Shannon, gesturing towards the leftward hall. "Come through this way."

Weird.

Sidestep was bright. The wall panels were a very light grey, nearly white in color, and the overhead lighting was matched with emergency strips on the floor, giving light from above and below. Amos didn't seem perturbed, but Alex didn't care for it. It wasn't natural to have so much corporate interest in an out of the way station few outsiders would ever visit. Who were they trying to impress? He doubted he and Amos were it.

"As you can see," Administer O'Connor said, turning back to look Alex directly in the eye. "The station is utterly clean of any kind of foreign invader. Our soil is healthy and whole and available in shipments up to five tons."

"Great," said Alex, trying not to glance at Amos. Maybe it was just him, maybe he was the only one getting the heebie jeebies.

They took one lift down, and another sideways, yet a third one up, though only two floors. The door opened directly to a small room where five would have been a crowd. Both Shannon and O'Connor used key cards in the wall to open the door opposite the lift, which slid open to reveal a lab. Poor practice, that. Should have been at least one more airlock and a better key system, which meant Sidestep was either incredibly confident or incredibly dumb. Hell, Alex wouldn't trust his own mother with a key card if he had the run of the place.

Beyond the lab, through a curtain of clear plastic, was a long space filled with waist high white tables of brown soil and green plants. Alex had to admit, the green sure was pretty. He wished he knew what the hell they were. Didn't look like any kind of tomato he had ever seen before. Tomato, potato, the purple bush halfway down the table. Shannon led the way through the lab, followed by Amos, then Alex, then O'Connor. The lab was spotless, all of the equipment tidied away in drawers, with only one scope of some variety or another in the corners, complete units one could roll from place to place. The smell hit them both as soon as they went through the curtain; heat, humidity, the sweet, sweet scent of living green and the deeper scent of the soil. Amos twitched, a stuttered step that Alex only noticed because Amos was in front of him. 

Shannon turned around and spread her arms wide. "This soil is complete and complex. Any species native to Earth can be started within it, and it can be adjusted to the Martian norm." 

_Right on._

"For sales, we would of course ship neutral soil, and start it wherever the buyer wanted."

"The soil is free?" inquired Amos, his hands on his hips.

"No. The soil is very, very low cost, but the starter - "

"Ah," He looked over the plants, nodding. "The starter is where the money comes in."

Shannon shrugged. "We do have to earn a living, too."

"Nothing comes for free, Mr. Burton," said O'Connor, his tone all nasal.

"You're telling me," Amos turned around, his eyes drinking in the plants. "I need to speak to my colleague for a moment."

Shannon and O'Connor dutifully retreated out of hearing range.

Alex leaned towards Amos and spoke softly. "So? What do you think?"

"I don't know," Amos shook his head, frowning ever so slightly. "Seems strange, to have all this out here. I mean, if this were my gear I'd be shouting it to high heaven."

"Right?"

Amos reached out and drew the fuzzy pod head of a plant closer, bent down and sniffed its leaves. "I think we should get a sample and talk to Prax, see what he thinks."

"They're never goi- "

"Stop! Stop!!" cried Dr. Shannon, arms outstretched. "Did you touch it? Did it touch your skin?"

They both looked at her, then Amos abruptly jerked away from the plant, doing a rapid double take between it and Shannon and back again. "What?"

"Did you touch the plant? Did it stick you with anything?"

Amos looked at his hand, shook his head. "No, it didn't stick me...why?"

A look of relief passed over Shannon's face like a cloud passed in front of the sun. "Some people have had adverse reactions. Nothing fatal, just...it's only a twenty-four thing. I'm afraid you'll have to return to your ship for the duration, we don't have liability for visitors."

Now that was a bunch of bullshit if ever Alex had heard it. Liability was precisely the opposite - especially if - "What can we expect? Will we need medical supplies? Is your sickbay available?"

"Ah," said O'Connor, lowering his wrist from his mouth. 

Fancy, having a comm like that. 

"Buyers aren't really supposed to be in the lab. We're not really supposed to have anyone in here..."

Short version; You have money and we know who you are and we're willing to risk you'll buy our product even if the worst should happen.

Trouble was, they weren't wrong. Holden would buy the shit out of the soil if it really worked - hell, all of them would. Some things were simply too big to hold personal grudges against.

"What do you want us to do," Amos asked flatly.

Both Shannon and O'Connor glanced at each other. O'Connor shrugged. "We're just asking you to spend the next twenty four in your ship, that's all. Infections among staff have been known to happen - we don't know the mechanism behind it. You'll be fine, everyone's fine, after, and if you need medical attention you'll have it, I promise."

"Well, as long as you _promise_ ," Alex drawled, because really, that was ridiculous.

"Fine. Alex, let's go."

A bit surprised by the ease with which Amos acquiesced, Alex nontheless was right behind him all the way back to the airlock. He was dying to know what Amos was thinking, and if they had been alone he would have asked, but O'Connor and Shannon had him on guard, a feeling that had only increased with this new nonsense. Research, research was the answer, and it was looking as if he had plenty of time to do it.

As soon as they passed through the umbilical and closed the airlock, Amos started stripping.

"What the hell was that about?" Alex asked, noting just how fast Amos was peeling out of his jumpsuit, leaving him in gray boxer briefs and a white tank top.

"I just wanted out of there. Place was creeping me out."

Say what? Sidestep was creeping him out, and he'd been on _Eros!_ "Okay...well, I'm going to make tea, I'll make an extra cup."

Amos kicked his foot out of the jumpsuit's leg, then hurled it into the bin for cleaning. Flinging one arm up, he stalked out of the airlock, leaving Alex standing there, befuddled. "Hunh."

Deciding Amos was best left on his own, Alex went and made tea, threw sauce and water and noodles and dried veg into the slow cooker. He went to the comm and made sure every alarm was piggybacked to his quarters, then went to wash up and get Sidestep's stink off of him. Wasn't natural, air like that on a space station, no matter how small or unpopulated it might be. Stations had a certain underlying smell no matter which one you went to, and that smell was stale air that dried your nostrils out, the odor of warm plastic, and the perfume to cover up the smell of unwashed bodies. Sweet and green was just out of place, made no sense, fresh air like that.

Out of the shower, wrapped only in a towel, Alex put on Music Central's Zen station and looked himself over carefully. He was doing well, physically. Bruises all healed up, he was even carrying a nice, healthy layer of fat. Not too much, not too little, just right for his frame. The beard, though...that could use a trim. He forewent the razor for a fast sweep of the electric buzzer, carefully working around his jawline. He was no Bollywood star, but he looked nice enough. 

He was just wondering if he should check in with Amos when the door chimed. He hadn't locked it in the first place - but Amos was Amos, he had curious ideas over what did and did not constitute privacy. "It's open."

Alex picked his jumpsuit off the bed so Amos would have a place to sit, if he was hankering for a place to mosey for awhile. He nodded at Amos when the door slid open. "Did you get the tea? Should still be hot."

Amos said nothing, merely leaned on one arm in the doorway, staring at Alex with a look he couldn't interpret.

"You feeling okay?"

"Yeah. No. I don't know."

"W should go to sickbay, do a diagnostic."

"I don't think - no. That's not what I want."

Alex raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "Doesn't matter what you want, it's what you need. Sit on the bed if you want, I gotta get this hair out of my eye, it's driving me nuts." He leaned closer to the mirror, well aware of Amos's heavy silence and not liking it one little bit. A quiet Amos was a thinking Amos, and a thinking Amos was far more dangerous that the one who simply reacted. 

Amos slunk into the room, almost hesitant to invade Alex's space. He sat on the bed, popped up a moment later to stand behind Alex, looking over his shoulder into the mirror, too. Alex could feel the heat coming off his body and cursed himself for not putting on a tee shirt as soon as the chime sounded. Alex met Amos's eyes in the mirror, didn't like the blankness in them, no. "Penny for your thoughts?"

"I want - " Amos stopped, licked his lips.

"Yeah? You want what?" Alex asked, trying to turn around, but Amos didn't move. "Turn around, will you? It's cramped as all hell in here."

When no answer was forthcoming, Alex began to worry in earnest. "Seriously, are you okay? I think you might be running a little fever, you seem hot."

To say the feel of hands on his hips, and then arms around his waist was startling was an understatement. Becoming aware of an erection against his backside was so shocking, Alex froze. An instant later he was trying to break Amos's hold, but the man's grip was tight. For a few seconds they struggled, Alex trying to push Amos away and Amos intent upon keeping close. "Amos, for fucks sakes, what do you want? Use your words, man."

"You know what I want."

Alex laughed in disbelief, because this was really happening. "I really don't," he insisted, hoping Amos would take the statement for ignorance rather than an outright lie, because it was pretty fucking obvious was Amos wanted. 

"Stop," muttered Amos, pushing Alex into the sink.

Alex lost his balance and that was all it took. He felt a hand on the back of his head and then the mirror came up and smashed him in the forehead once, twice, hard. Dazed, he had no leverage with Amos's weight just so. In addition, Amos grabbed Alex's wrists and twisted them behind his back. Working next to the man, day in and day out, a person might forget how strong Amos was. The pain in his shoulders was immense and he immediately yielded. "Amos, what are you doing. I'm your friend, your colleague..."

Of course there was no answer, that would be too easy.

"Keep still," Amos commanded, shaking Alex a little. 

Standing there, Alex wondered just how far Amos was going to take things. He realized he was panting, and took a deeper breath to calm down. As soon as he did, Amos ratcheted his breath right back up with a pinch to his nipple and a stroke down his torso. Alex felt his towel being loosened and immediately understood that whatever was happening to Amos, it wasn't going to end soon, which meant that neither was his ordeal. "You don't have to do this. Amos. You don't have to do this, this isn't you."

Amos didn't have to continue on, but he did. He used the towel to bind Alex's wrists together, then proceeded to run his hands up and down Alex's back. 

He had to get his breath under control. That was the key to getting out of this with his wits intact. If he could just breathe, then he could think of things to say, things that would stop Amos - no, nothing was going to stop Amos, Amos was going to do whatever the fuck he wanted to do and Alex was just going to have to take it. So breathe, breathe, breathe. Besides, it wasn't as if Amos wasn't appreciating the body under his fingers. Obviously Alex wasn't as well built as Amos...oh stop, stop, stop...

Shivering under the graze of Amos's fingertips against the top of his ass, Alex couldn't help the shudder that went through him as Amos fondled his buttocks. By the time Amos kicked his feet wider, Alex was on the verge of hyperventilating. And when Alex felt the first gentle probe behind his balls, he almost blacked out. The dull throb of his headache was almost enough to do him in as it was. 

Okay, okay. He couldn't, it wasn't, Amos was going to do the thing. He just had to breathe, in, out, in, out, in, out, in out in out inoutinoutinoutinoutinout -

There was the snap of a cap being opened. A squirb of liquid. Cold slickness on his skin. But he didn't have any slick in his quarters, so where -

_\- Breathe -_

Amos was moving behind him and then oh _God_ the not-totally-foreign feeling of a finger in his ass, which ordinarily wasn't a problem, it was just, yeah, a little wining and dining first would not go amiss.

"You don't mind this, I know you don't," said Amos, his warm breath washing Alex between his shoulder blades and raising some gooseflesh on his arms. "Remember those twins? The one you slept with that night, I had her again later on, she told me what you liked, what you wanted."

"There's a big fucking difference between asking and taking!"

"Yeah, well, next time I'll ask."

Alex glared at Amos over his shoulder, then grimaced at the burn of two fingers. "Next time? Are you fucking kidding me?"

"Twenty four hours, that's what they said."

"Sweet Jes - " He inhaled sharply at the prod to his prostate, which, to his utter horror, sent a spike of pleasure through his belly.

It was at this point that Amos reached around with his free hand to fondle Alex. A finger in his ass and a firm grip on his cock - under different circumstances this might the hottest thing that had ever happened to him.

"Come on, just go with it. I'm going to do what I want, Alex, you know that."

 _Fuck!_ Despite the throbbing in his skull, Alex leaned against the mirror. Unfortunately his gaze only had one place to go; Amos's pale hand on his prick, which was already plump and half-erect. Caught between the finger and the hand, under his very eyes he went fully up and proud. He couldn't deny it felt good - it was just - _Amos_ \- not like this! Another surge of pleasure ran up is back, compounded when Amos began to mouth his shoulder. 

So. 

He had choices. He could accept what was happening to him, or not. He could indulge in an unwanted orgasm, or not. He could shame himself, or not. 

And shame, for what? It wasn't his fault he had been taken unaware, and it certainly wasn't Amos's fault no it was Amos's fault that he'd been struck by the curiosity bug, and it was his fault that he couldn't control himself better, but it wasn't his fault that he had a truly fucked up sense of morality. No one unquestioningly slept with their surrogate mother on the regular without having something missing from their sense of right or wrong. Besides, he did know Amos...Amos was surprisingly straightforward about shit like this. He wouldn't hold it against Alex if Alex held it against him, which was a truly messed up way of looking at the world.

The fingers left his body.

Alex swallowed. 

"Bend over a little more."

He did, because it was the easy thing to do. 

"Ready? Here we go..."

The cool, blunt head of Amos's cock pushed against Alex and he grit his teeth at the stretch, broke into a sweat at the pressure. "More slick, you need to use more slick - "

"Don't be such a wuss."

Despite the accusation, Amos paused and did as Alex requested. The second attempt went much better, to the point where Alex didn't feel quite so out of his body as before. He could do this.

"Come on, move up a bit, let me see your face," said Amos, pulling on Alex's shoulder. "Yeah, that's it. See, not so bad, right? I'm not so bad a lover, right?"

"Yeah, sure," said Alex, disconcerted to see how slack Amos's mouth already was. "You think this is what they meant? About incidents on station?"

"Uh, may-be..."

It wasn't as bad as he had feared. Odd, and a bit uncomfortable, but not horrible. If anything, the pain in his shoulders was far worse.

Amos paused again, and when he finally began to move once more, he wrapped a hand full of slick around Alex, instantly changing the game. 

"Oh shit," Alex breathed out, too surprised to keep silent. The sight of his own dark cock appearing and disappearing in the circle of Amos's hand as Amos pumped in and out was shockingly sexy. Amos adjust his stance and oh - OH - Alex was caught and held in a spiral of sweetness that started in his belly and moved up and out, leaving him breathless and tingling.

Amos's thrust were becoming deeper, slower as he rolled his hips. He tightened his grip, letting movement do all the work. No, letting Alex do the work as his focus turned on himself, rather than what was being done to him.

Alex couldn't help it - he groaned. This loosened the floodgates on Amos, who went from near silence to grunting with every plunge. Now that he was allowing himelf to feel, Alex found he was more aroused than he had been in weeks, months, maybe even years, and he had had plenty of sex in that time. He arched his back, desperate to get Amos in the right spot with every advance and yes, god yes there it was -

"Amos - I'm gonna, I'm gonna come - "

"Fuck yeah," Amos whined, voice high and taut. He somehow had the presence of mind to stroke Alex a couple of times before gripping his hips in both hands and pounding away.

Alex was gone, suspended in a seemingly never ending loop of pleasure that had his legs shaking and his eyes rolling back into his head. It was a moment that lasted forever and an instant, and when he came back to himself, it was with a squeal and a gasp after the fact, sparkly shimmers of pleasure turning to near pain before Alex's hands tightened and then he, too, stilled and jerked and stilled again.

Amos collapsed against Alex's back, gulping for breath. 

For a long moment they simply stood there, Amos inside Alex, but Alex could feel him beginning to soften. He didn't know what to say or do. His belly was striped with semen, his legs ached - as did his ass, and he was sweating as if he were standing next to a containment leak without wearing a suit and rebreather. 

"Well," said Amos. Even he sounded taken aback. "Well," he repeated, before pressing his lips to the nape of Alex's neck. Once, twice, once more. 

Alex felt a gush as soon as Amos pulled out, and tried not to feel humiliated. That's what happened when a man came, that was normal, perfectly normal. If he were a different type of person, maybe he would be able to turn and do some sort of violence to Amos once his wrists were free, but the truth was that he was in pain and while he was angry and hurt, he didn't necessarily want to hit Amos. Or maybe he did, he just felt really confused about the whole thing.

"Christ, my shoulders," he said, wincing at the release from the strain.

"Yeah, um, I'm gonna go..." Amos said, hitching up his briefs as he headed for the door.

"Whatever," Alex said below his breath, staring at his reflection in the mirror. He was a mess. Bruise blooming on his forehead even though the worst of it was above his hairline. Wide-eyed with shock, dead-eyed with trauma, mouth already turned down. He turned away, started the shower again. He'd have to be fast, the shuttle wasn't built with long showers in mind, but that didn't matter, he just needed to be clean again.

When he was done, after locking the door as hard as he could, he crawled into bed and curled up with his back against the wall.

He slept, and then he woke angry.

Angry and hungry, but mostly angry.

He raged out of bed wearing only his briefs, stabbed the panel to unlock the door, stalked down the corridor, glancing into every room to see if Amos was there. Everything was clear, leaving only one place for Amos to be: his quarters.

The door was locked, leaving Alex practically spitting. He pounded on the door with the flat of his hand. "Amos! _AMOS!_ Open the goddamned door! I want to talk to you!"

Leaning against the door frame, arms spread wide to prevent Amos from ducking past, Alex listened hard. He didn't hear anything - he wasn't expecting to, but it seemed important. There was always that one time when he did hear something...the more he thought about it, the less sense it made, until he shook his head at his own foolishness. "Amos!"

The door duly opened, Amos standing here in just his boxer briefs, a paler, also half-naked version of Alex. He looked...he looked like he was expecting to be hit. As well he should, because that's exactly what Alex did. It wasn't the expectation so much as the cockiness that went with it, the 'I can take whatever you dish out' attitude, seeing as it was also tinged with a good dose of 'you wouldn't dare'.

Thus it was with great joy that Alex was able to wipe the smirk off of Amos's face, when he pushed him so hard Amos stumbled onto his bed. Alex followed him down, caging him in on all fours. "Just what the _fuck_ were you thinking? You think I enjoyed that, hunh?"

Amos grinned, and that was it. Alex smacked him across the face hard enough to draw blood from the corner of his mouth. He hit him again, followed with a punch to his gut.

"That all you got?" Amos wheezed, looking at Alex with wet eyes.

"Shut the fuck up," said Alex, perching on Amos's knees. He tore Amos's briefs away, then awkwardly shifted between his knees, spreading them wide. "What the fuck?"

Amos was using a toy. "You literally have a stick up your ass," said Alex, because buggering fuck, this went a long way to explaining Amos's moods swinging from casual to violent in an instant. "Just how blue _are_ your balls?"

It was just as well, that Amos kept quiet, for Alex was in no mood to hear it. For once, he was going to be like Amos and take what he wanted, although he wasn't absolutely sure why he wanted at this particular moment in time. Without further ceremony he removed the toy - a thicker than expected pink dildo, terribly old fashioned, but a man had to do what a man had to do, he supposed - and put Amos's ankles on his shoulders and shoved inside. 

He let out a shaky breath at the heat and tightness, then let go. Turnabout was fair play and all that, right? It didn't matter, right now he deserved this after what he had been through. And anyway, it wasn't going to take long, he had been ready and raring to go even in his dreams. 

And then it was all over.

Alex couldn't look Amos in the eyes. He slithered off the other man and went back to his quarters for his third shower of the day. He was wide awake, afterward, and went to the mess to eat the noodles he had prepared earlier. The mess smelled delicious once he uncovered the pot, and although he put plenty into his bowl, he soon discovered his appetite had gone missing in the interim. His stomach clamored, so he ate them anyway, even though they were virtually tasteless in his mouth.

Just as he was on the verge of giving up, Amos entered the mess, going directly to the drinks dispenser and getting himself a large flask of tea. Lemon, by the smell. He drank half of it down in one draught.

Alex kept sneaking little glances his way. Amos looked the same, dressed in drab olive overalls without a sky patch, his regular work boots. There was a dark spot high on his neck, blood, probably. Alex closed his eyes, trying hard to think of ways to resign without saying exactly what he had done to Amos. Holden would demand a better explanation, yet what were either of them going to say? 'Oh, Holden, don't mind us, we just had a little rape party while we were at Sidestep Station, no worries.'

Yeah, that would go over well. And then Holden would have to get Naomi involved, and that would probably mean castration at best, because Naomi had no truck with that kind of bullshit. So. What were they going to do. Plainly one of them had to leave the _Rocinante_ , they couldn't work together, not after this.

"Stop thinking so hard, you'll pull something," said Amos, looking at his flask as if it held the answers to the mysteries of the Universe.

Shaking his head, Alex still refused to look at him directly. "I - "

"Shit happens. They warned us that people became violent, and they warned us that it was an infection of some kind. "

"You're saying that's why I - no, no," Alex shook his head again. "I didn't know that was part of me, that I was that kind of man."

Amos shrugged. "I've had worse."

Which was in and of itself utterly horrifying. 

"Thats - that's not good, Amos."

"Maybe not, but it did prepare me for life in the Belt."

Because of course it did.

Amos put the flask into the recycler and walked away, hands in his pockets. "Anyway, I'm just sayin'."

"It's not okay!" Alex shouted at Amos's retreating back. _Christ!_ What did a man have to do to get through Amos's thick skull? "It's not okay," Alex mumbled to himself. He put his head in his hands rubbed his forehead. "It's really not..."

A heavy hand clapped on his shoulder, startling him badly. Amos leaned over to look at him directly. His gaze was clear, with no hint of trauma or regret. 

"It's not. But it's going to be all right."

After a moment, Alex slowly nodded. If Amos said they were good, then they were good...though for his own actions, he had some heavy regret. Or maybe he just needed to be more like Amos and not worry over much about what had happened. He could let it go, in time, he thought. 

Let it go, and move on.

**Author's Note:**

> I was so torn between writing this and one of your other choices, but I'm glad The Expanse won out. I love Alex and book-Amos, but tv-Amos is growing on me. He's a complicated character, and I hope I was able to show my vision of them both as well as possible.
> 
> I'm afraid this was the happiest ending that could happen: the boys are not okay, but they will be all right.


End file.
